Kristin teaching & learning in Korea

Hello Again, Chuseok! More importantly, Pixie Stix are in this post.

Today is Monday but really it’s a big Friday for I have the next four days off for the national Korean holiday of Chuseok.

Matt actually got today off and I’m jealous, not just because of the time he can spend lazing about or studying for the LSAT but because teaching the day before a holiday is pretyt much hopeless.

Instead of attempting to teach anything of particular significance, I sped through a silly lesson on the past tense to get to a drawing activity that involved writing about the craziest day ever.

That was fun, I’ve also had a few students reach 15 stickers recently and they’ve been able to pick out some prizes from my Bowl of Awesome (working title). The real story here is in the Pixie Stix.
I’ve never been much of a candy fiend but I’ve always had something of a love affair with Pixie Stix. I can even recall an occasion where I won a Disco contest in middle school for a giant blue one. As this candy’s always been a part of my life, everything about the Stix is intuitive to me. It’s quite evident, however, that the same cannot be said for my students.
At first, I was flabberghasted that no students were choosing Pixie Stix out of the bowl. But I soon realized that the colorful paper straws were just not that immediately recognizable as candy and that I had to explain what they were. After that, more students chose them after which I had another weird situation on my hands; many students didn’t know how to eat the candy. After finally convincing a first grader to try it, I was a little defensive when he came up to me declaring the candy defective. Why? He had gotten the end wet which us regular Pixie Stix consumers know will clog it up. Not only did my student not figure this out – he couldn’t figure out the solution either. Nothing against him though, he’s new to this addiction, while I’ve been honing my sugar inhaling skills for over a decade now.

What’s extra cute about students and Pixie Stix is that they share. I don’t recall ever sharing one in my life and I had a student today who carefully poured sugar sand into the mouths of at least four of his classmates.

I’m starting to think it’s even possible I could/should learn some things about my favorite candy in Korea.